


The Dark Lord Rises

by Golddude22



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, Canon Divergent, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Not Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-01-15 05:15:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 13,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21248054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Golddude22/pseuds/Golddude22
Summary: A new power is rising in the galaxy, with deadly consequences for everyone.





	1. Prolouge

**Author's Note:**

> Setting is about 1 year into the Clone Wars. After the second battle of Geonosis.

The master had summoned them.

Six and his brothers marched into the masters throne room, wondering what would require all of them to be present.

The master was standing on the raised dais at the far end of the chamber, awaiting their arrival. They approached in a line abreast and knelt before him.

"You summoned us master" they spoke in unison.

"The time has come" he answered "You are the chosen, those who proved worthy to serve me" he continued, pacing in front of them, his dark cloak billowing out behind him.

"Thank you, master" they responded.

"Everything is in place, you know your missions, do not fail me" he finished, standing in front of One in the middle of the line.

"We won't, master"

Rising they bowed and left the chamber, excitement growing as they made their way to the hanger, after years of training and preparation it was time to strike.

As they entered the hanger six looked around at his brothers-in-arms, each had been assigned a mission, a mission critical to the masters plan, a mission they would not fail, for failing the mission meant failing the master.

Even though they were only pawns in the master's grand plan, they were proud to serve him, each playing a vital role, one of a _number_.

One Of _Nine_.


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Nine Strike.

**Coruscant **

Six stood in his concealed position overlooking his target, waiting.

If his target was on schedule he would enter his office in 7 minutes and 45 seconds.

Six was patient, you didn't survive the master's training if you weren't, he thought as he ran over the plan one last time.

His strike team had infiltrated Coruscant two weeks earlier and had spent the first week assessing their target, learning his schedule and adjusting their plan accordingly. The plan was simple enough, the delivery system ( A speeder) would be loaded with enough explosives to do the job ten times over, piloted by a droid, it would be programed to fly it into the target office detonating on impact.

Today had been selected because he had an early morning meeting that had him in his office for at least 20 minutes, more than enough time to get the job done and it fit in nicely with the others plans.

His comm chimed an alert, 60 seconds till target arrived, Six pulled out his macro binoculars and focused them on the Senate building, zooming in till the Chancellors office filled his vision.

Right on time the Chancellor entered his office, followed by several senators.

Six smiled as he waited for them to settle. They took their time, but six didn't mind, let them fuss over who sat where in their last moments.

"Send it" he ordered as the last senator took her seat.

45 seconds later he watched in satisfaction as the speeder slammed into the building and exploded.

Quickly gathering his equipment, he made his way quietly away from the area and to the rendezvous point. In the distance he saw smoke rising from another building, Five had completed his mission too.

They would wait for confirmation of their targets deaths before informing the master, it wouldn't do to declare success only to discover the target had survived.

That was merely precautionary though, Six was sure no one had survived that blast.

Still smiling to himself, he entered a turbolift and descended into Coruscant's depths.

* * *

**Across the galaxy the Nine struck.  
**

One infiltrated Count Dooku's palace and killed him while he slept.

Two attacked the the CIS Senate, killing dozens before escaping.

Three went after General Grevious, destroying the cyborg on his command ship.

Four hit GAR HQ, destroying key CIC systems and killing most of the Republic High Command.

Five targeted the Jedi Council using the same method as Six.

Seven's team assaulted Jabba's palace, leaving no survivors.

Eight assassinated Duchess Satine, but was captured by security forces before fighting his way free.

Nine Wiped out the Grand Hutt Council on Nal Hutta.

So began the Dark Lord's plan.

* * *

When Six entered the safe house 4 hour's later, having spent 3 of them making sure he wasn't followed, Five was waiting for him in the kitchen, looking very pleased with himself.

"Success?" he asked as Six sat down.

Six nodded, pouring himself a cup of caf, taking a sip he sighed in satisfaction.

Five's smile widened.

"The Master will be pleased" Five said as he pushed over a plate of food.

"Yes, he will be" Six replied, taking a muffin from the plate.

"What about your mission?' Six asked after a moment.

Five smiled again.

"There were only seven on world at the moment, but I'm pretty sure I got them all, and.."

He was interrupted when Four walked through the door.

"Target destroyed" he exclaimed, grinning like an idiot.

Six shook his head, despite all their training, Four still behaved like a child whenever they were away from the master, it didn't affect his mission performance, but sometimes it got on Six's nerves.

"Good work" Five said slapping him on the back.

"Yeah, well done" Six added.

"Thank you, thank you" Four replied, joining them at the table.

"Now we just need to wait for confirmation before moving on to phase two" Five said.

"I can't wait" Four said, another grin splitting his face.

* * *

Later that evening they received confirmation of their success via the holonet.

"The attack on the senate yesterday has killed the Chancellor, officials have confirmed" the report began

"Also confirmed to have been killed are Senator's Bail Organa, Onaconda Farr and Orn Free Ta. Many more are feared dead, though authorities have yet to release the names of those unaccounted for. We'll keep you updated as the situation develops."

Six smiled in satisfaction as the report continued.

"A similar attack targeted the Jedi Temple, which killed at least 6 Jedi including Jedi Master's Yoda and Mace Windu, while a third attack has left dozens dead at the GAR Command Center, a travel ban on all powered transport has been issued until further notice, and while officials have yet to lay blame, all signs point to the separatists."

Four snorted "the master will soon destroy that theory"

"Yes" Five said "come on, we need to give our report, then we can begin preparations for phase two"

They nodded and moved over to their holocomm, activating the encryption they contacted the Master.

When it connected they knelt before his holographic form.

"Our mission's were successful, Master" Six reported.

"Excellent, begin preparations for phase two immediately"

"Yes Master" they responded as the hologram flickered out.

Rising they looked at each other, identical smiles forming on their faces.


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Investigation begins.

**JEDI TEMPLE CORUSCANT**

Ahsoka was bored, it was the second day of their week of leave and she was already bored.

Sure there were lessons to catch up on and training to do, but she just didn't feel like studying today.

To make things worse Anakin said he had a _personal_ matter to deal with and had disappeared the previous evening so she couldn't even annoy him.

And all her friends were on the front lines, well, except for those in the 501st, but she'd decided against going to see them, they were on leave and shouldn't have to occupy her.

Most of all she wished she could talk to Barriss, they'd grown close after the mission to Geonosis and she hadn't seen her since they'd parted on the medical station. They exchanged messages as often as they could but it wasn't the same as actually talking to her.

Sighing she made her way to one of the balconies overlooking the city, in the distance she could see the senate building, even Riyo and Padmè were too busy to do anything with her. Sighing again she made to turn away when a bright flash caught her eye, she turned back, looking for the source and noticed smoke billowing from one part of the Senate. Frozen in shock, something above her caught her attention and she glanced up in time to see a speeder crash into the council chamber and explode.

The blast shook the Temple, as Ahsoka stared in horror, then she was off running towards the disaster, comming her master as she went.

* * *

Anakin was having breakfast with his wife when he felt a disturbance in the force. His fork paused halfway between his mouth and plate as he tried to determine the source of it, moments later he sensed a second stronger disturbance.

"What's wrong?" Padmè asked.

"I don't...." he cut off as his commlink chimed.

"Skywalker" he answered.

"Master" Ahsoka's voice came through, sounding close to panic.

"You need to get back to the Temple, someone's bombed the council chamber and I think the senate got hit too."

"I'm on my way" Anakin replied.

"Please hurry" Ahsoka finished before hanging up.

Abandoning what was left of his breakfast, he turned to his wife, who had paled in shock.

"I have to go, please stay away from the Senate for now" Anakin said, giving her a kiss before running to the balcony and jumping into his speeder.

As he took off a warning came over the traffic control frequency.

"All speeder traffic is grounded until further notice" it began

"Vessels not complying will be forced down"

Anakin growled before transmitting his priority clearance codes and waited for confirmation before plotting a course to the Temple through the quickly emptying skies.

When he came in sight of the Temple he hissed at the extent of the damage, the entire council chamber was gone, burning wreckage in it's place.

Landing on the front steps, he raced into the main hall and a flurry of panicked activity.

Reaching the floor below the council chamber, Anakin exited the turbolift into a world of chaos, feelings of pain and death assaulted his senses.

Healers were tending to the numerous wounded jedi while several master's were coordinating the rescue effort.

Looking around, he saw the ceiling was collapsing in several places, stepping carefully around piles of rubble and bodies, he spotted Ahsoka comforting a padawan who appeared to have lost his master.

She looked up as he made his way over, tears in her eyes.

Kneeling down besides her, he put an arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him slightly, taking comfort from his presence. He placed his other hand on the boy's shoulder and he started and looked up at him with reddened eyes.

"You're Master Billaba's padawan aren't you?" Anakin asked.

The boy nodded "Caleb Dume" he added quietly.

They sat quietly for a minute, till a healer came over and took Caleb away, Anakin turned his attention to Ahsoka.

"What happened" he asked.

Ahsoka took a deep breath before answering.

"I was on a balcony looking towards the senate when I saw an explosion, a few moments later a speeder crashed into the council chamber. I ran straight here to help after comming you but their wasn't much I could do" she finished, a few tears falling on her cheeks. "I think Master Yoda was killed" she said quietly.

Anakin pulled her into a hug and she wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his shoulder.

"Knight Skywalker" a voice rang out.

Anakin looked around, a Master was approaching where they were sitting.

"Yes" he responded standing and letting go of Ahsoka, who wiped her eyes before turning to face the Master too.

"The remaining council members are convening in the war room and have requested yours and padawan Tano's presence." she said as she reached their position. " you'll need this too" she added handing him a datapad. "It's got all current information on the attacks and will automatically update as we learn more."

"Thank you, Master Kontari" Anakin said turning to Ahsoka " come on, Snips, let's go"

She nodded and they made their way over to the turbolift.

Entering it he turned on the datapad to run over the current information before briefing the council, his face darkening the more he read.

"They targeted the GAR HQ as well" he said.

"What about the barracks?" Ahsoka asked, thinking of Rex and their men.

"I don't know" Anakin said, and continued reading.

* * *

When they entered the war room the holograms of the surviving council members were waiting.

Obi-Wan, Shaak Ti, Plo Koon, Ki-Adi Mundi and Kit Fisto.

"Anakin, what's happened?" Obi-Wan asked as they approached the holotable.

Anakin ran a hand over his face before responding.

"Several coordinated attacks were carried out on the GAR HQ, the senate and here. We're still waiting for the reports on the other two attacks, but I'll give you the summary of the Temple attack. Approximately 50 minutes ago, a speeder loaded with explosives was flown into the council chamber. Master's Yoda, Windu, Kolar, Tiin, Billaba, Gallia, Rancisis and Piell were killed in the attack, along with four temple guards and seven others in the hallway outside."

He felt the shock coming off them as he continued.

"Ahsoka witnessed the attack and I'll have her write up a report for you"

He was interrupted when a knight entered the room, bowing to the council, before informing them that the Chancellor had been killed in the attack along with at least 64 others and that the GAR HQ attack had similar casualties.

They thanked him and he left.

"This is getting worse by the minute" Obi-Wan muttered before continuing " Anakin, I want you to take charge of this investigation, put together a team to assist you, you'll have the authority to use any means at your disposal. We'll also have Master Vos return to assist you and we'll authorise the deployment of the 501st to assist with the 65th. We'll make sure the Coruscant police provide full cooperation"

"Yes, Master" Anakin said.

"And keep us updated" Obi-Wan finished.

"Don't worry, we will" Anakin bowed and left the room followed by Ahsoka.

Obi-Wan sighed and turned to his fellow council members.

"We should probably discuss who to bring onto the council temporarily until we can properly choose candidates" Obi-wan said quietly.

"Yes, indeed" Plo commented.

"Master koth can take his old position again" Shaak put in.

"And I can recommend Stass Allie" Ki-Adi added.

"Jocasta Nu might be persuaded to take a temporary position" Kit mused.

"Luminara would be a good candidate as well" Obi-Wan continued.

"What about Vos" Ki-Adi asked with a ghost of a smile.

Everyone looked at him grinning, for a moment.

"We can always ask" Plo finally said.

"We'll also need to make funeral arrangements and appoint a new grand master" Ki-Adi said.

"Yes" Obi-Wan sighed. "And a war to fight on top of it all."

* * *

Anakin paused once they were outside the war room, pulling out his commlink, he called Rex.

Almost instantly Rex answered "Yes general"

"Rex, we need your help" Anakin said "get the men ready, we'll be investigating the bombings alongside local authorities, after that meet us at the temple and we can begin organizing things"

"Of course, general. I'll be there as soon as I can" Rex replied.

"Thanks Rex, Skywalker out" Anakin finished.

"So where to" Ahsoka asked.

"The security centre first I think" Anakin answered "we'll check over the security holos and decide our next move from there"

"Ok" she said as they made their way there.

After an hour Rex joined them and they spent the rest of the morning reviewing the holos and deciding on a plan of action.

"I think we should bring in Knight's Jusik and Tur-mukan" Ahsoka said several hours later.

"They've just disrupted a terrorist cell that was bombing military sites, so they have experience we could use"

"Alight, add them to the list, I'll set a briefing for tomorrow morning"

Ahsoka nodded.

Shortly after, Commander Fox commed them and asked them to come over to the senate to "compare notes". So they wrapped up and headed out, Marvelling at the strange sight of clear skies over Coruscant.

Arriving outside the Senate they noticed the massive increase in security, whole companies of senate commandos and 65th guard patrolled the grounds while gunships circled overhead.

The met Fox in the security hub, along with several others including the head of senate security and an inspector from Coruscant police. Fox showed them the footage from the attacks on the senate and GAR HQ and Anakin showed them the temple attack holos.

"We ran a trace on the speeder's IFF" Fox said when they had finished.

"It came from a hanger in level 317, the team I sent couldn't find any evidence of the attackers though"

"Can you run a trace on the speeder that hit the temple for us?" Anakin asked.

"If you have it's IFF number I can" Fox said.

Anakin gave him the number and Fox ran it through the system.

"Looks like it came from a hanger in the same sector in level 314" Fox said after a minute.

"That'll probably be a dead end as well" Anakin replied "we'll check it out tomorrow"

"Can we scan the commlinks active in the area to check for suspicious activity?" Rex asked.

Fox nodded "we record all comms on the planet for security reasons"

Running another search on his terminal, they waited several minutes for the results.

"From 10 minutes before the attack to 1 minute after their were 104,712 commlinks active in the area" Fox informed them.

"Rex, get some of the 501st over here, we're going to need some help" Anakin said, sighing.

It was going to be a long night.


	4. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Investigation continues.

**Coruscant**

Anakin groaned as he staggered into his apartment far too close to dawn and collapsed onto his bed.

They'd spent most of yesterday reviewing comms data and witness interviews that Fox and his men had done.

Fives, Echo and several others had come to give them a hand with the comm traffic, but they hadn't found anything substantial until 1am in the morning, when Echo had listened to a short recording with only two spoken words, "Send it".

Tracing it had given him a location on one of the apartment buildings near the senate, and by accessing the security feeds from the building, he'd identified a cloaked individual standing on the rooftop watching the senate with a pair of macro binoculars.

They'd tried to track him as he made his getaway, but had lost him in the lower levels. He'd sent Ahsoka to get some rest shortly after with instructions to make sure he was awake in time for the briefing later in the morning.

They'd finally finished reviewing the comms at 4 a.m and he'd made sure nothing important was missed before sending his men back to the barracks, as he left he'd also asked Fox to attend the briefing at the temple tomorrow, before finally making his way to bed.

Sitting up to pull off his boots, he chucked them towards the door before flopping back onto his bed and closing his eyes. He was asleep in seconds.

* * *

Too soon Ahsoka was knocking on his door.

"Master, come on, we're going to be late for our own briefing" she yelled through the door.

"Urgh, I'm coming" he groaned, dragging himself out of bed.

Pulling on his boots, he joined Ahsoka in the hall and they made their way to the briefing, still rubbing sleep from his eyes.

Entering the room he looked around and saw everyone had arrived.

Apart from Ahsoka, there was Rex and several members of the 501st, including Fives, Echo and Jesse, Fox with a few others from the 65th, a number of Jedi from the judicial section, including Anakin was surprised to see, Quinlan Vos, several Coruscant police force members and towards the back of the room stood a pair of Jedi knights and mandalorans, with what looked like an Arc trooper.

They must be the group Ahsoka mentioned yesterday Anakin thought.

"Thank you for waiting." Anakin said stepping to the centre of the room.

Everyone stopped talking and focused on him.

"Before I begin, I'm sending everyone the case files, which will update automatically when the main files are updated" Anakin began.

He then proceeded to explain everything they currently knew on the Jedi temple attack, showing holos from of speeder and it's flight path to what had been discovered with the comms tracing, he then asked Fox to brief them on the senate attack, Fox proceeded in the same way as Anakin, showing the security holos and witness interviews as well, before moving on to the GAR HQ attack.

The security footage showed what looked like maintenance droids infiltrating the facility before exploding.

After that Anakin took over again, discussing the plan of action and handing out assignments. Most were assigned to investigate targets of interest in the areas around the hangers, while others were going to attempt to track down suspects identified in the holos.

Knights Jusik and Tur-mukan, along with the mandalorians and their commando squads were going to investigate the bomb sites and try trace the explosives and their suppliers.

"Alright" he said when he had finished. "any questions?, no?, good, let's get these animals"

Most of them departed, leaving just Ahsoka, Rex, Fives, Echo and Vos.

"I need to brief the council" Anakin said to them. "Then we can go check out that hanger".

They nodded and he activated the holocomm.

After a minute, all had accepted, the five surviving councillors had been joined by six others.

Anakin raised an eyebrow at Obi-Wan, who smiled slightly.

"Anakin I'd like you to meet the emergency council" he said, introducing them.

There was, Luminara Uduli, Eeth Koth, Stass Allie, Jocasta Nu, Tiplar, Tiplee.

" And Quinlan Vos" Obi-Wan finished gesturing at him.

Anakin looked at him in surprise.

"It's only temporary" Vos muttered.

Shaking his head, Anakin proceeded to update the council on the latest information.

When he'd finished Obi-Wan, filled him in on what the council had learned.

"From what we can tell we weren't the only ones hit" Obi-Wan began.

"It looks like the Hutts were attacked and..." a look of pain crossed his face "the Dutchess of Mandalore was assassinated"

Anakin hissed at that, he'd liked the Dutchess and after the mission escorting her to Coruscant he knew Obi-Wan was close to her.

"I'm sorry, Obi-Wan" he said quietly.

Obi-Wan nodded. The news had hit him hard.

"I think that covers everything for now" Plo said.

"Yes, Master" Anakin responded.

"On a final note the funerals will be held tomorrow" Jocasta Nu added sombrely.

They all nodded and Anakin made to sign off, when an incoming message interrupted him.

Checking the caller id, he frowned when it came up unknown, before pressing play.

A tall, dark, cloaked figure rose from the holo table.

_"Greetings, citizens of the galaxy, allow me to introduce myself"_ it began.

_"I am the Dark Lord, master of chaos and the one responsible for yesterday's attacks on your so called leaders." _

Anakin gritted his teeth as the figure continued.

_" Your senates are in chaos and your military leaders will be helpless to protect you. My armies will conquer your worlds, chaos will reign, not even the Jedi can stop me now. My agents will tear your governments and militaries apart from the inside."  
_

With a final evil laugh, the message ended.

There was silence for a moment before Anakin began giving orders.

"Rex, run a trace on the message, see if you can find it's point of origin and identify him"

"Yes, General" Rex nodded and headed out.

Turning to the council Anakin continued.

"Would you be able to investigate whether or not the Separatist were hit?" he asked.

"We'll do what we can" Luminara responded.

"Yes, if a new enemy is rising we need to find out everything we can" Plo added.

"I'll talk with the senate" Obi-wan said "if what the message claims is true, perhaps we can negotiate a cease fire with the Separatists"

Anakin snorted "I find that unlikely"

"Anything is possible" Stass Allie said.

"Alright, we'll continue our investigation and inform you if we discover any thing important" Anakin said, running a hand over his face.

"May the force be with you" Obi-wan said before cutting the connection.

Anakin turned to those left in the room.

"Jesse, get a few squad's together and meet us at the hanger" he ordered.

"Yes sir" Jesse saluted before running from the room.

"Fives, Echo, you're with us"

They nodded and, together they made their way to the hanger.

* * *

Anakin watched as Vos wandered around the hanger, running his hands over all the objects he encountered.

"Find anything?" he asked after half an hour.

"Just vague glimpses" Vos responded "nothing definitive"

"Hopefully Ahsoka, Fives and Echo are having more luck" Anakin said.

"There's none left" Fives said glumly.

After they'd arrived at the hanger Anakin had tasked them with finding security cams with coverage of the hanger and surrounding area. So far every camera they'd found had been either damaged, destroyed or disabled.

"We just need to keep looking" Ahsoka retorted.

They were on the opposite side of the street to hanger now, checking for the third time for any cameras they might have missed.

"What about this store" Echo suggested, as they passed in front of the hanger again. "They might have internal cameras with an angle"

"Worth a shot" Fives said, and they entered the shop.

Ahsoka walked up to the owner and flashed her id.

"We need to look over your security holos" she said in an authoritative voice.

The owner nodded and lead them to a back room with a terminal, bringing up the security feeds he left them to it.

"Ok, lets see what we've got" Echo said, taking a seat at the terminal and beginning to cycle through the cameras. He stopped when they got to one when a view of the hanger.

"That looks pretty good" Fives commented.

"Yeah, run it back to an hour before the attack" Ahsoka ordered.

Echo did as he was instructed and played the holo. Nothing happened in the first 30 minutes, then a group of people emerged from the hanger and got aboard a speeder that pulled up, 20 minutes after that the speeder left the hanger, piloted by what looked like a droid.

"Make a copy of the whole holo, then we can head back to the hanger and show my master what we've found." Ahsoka said.

Echo nodded and copied it to his data pad, before they headed back to meet up with Anakin and Vos.

Arriving back at the hanger they saw Jesse had arrived with reinforcements.Ahsoka recognised sergeant Appo standing at the front of Several squads while Anakin gave them orders.

"Master, we've found holo evidence of the attackers" Ahsoka announced when they entered.

"Let's see it" Anakin replied.

They showed the holo, afterwards Anakin issued new orders.

"Echo, send that to Fox, ask him to run facial recognition on them, and see if he can trace their movements. The rest of us will continue to sweep the area. Any questions?, no, move out."

* * *

Later that afternoon Appo and his squad were searching for a suspect in level 237. Fox had fed the faces of the suspects in the surveillance main frame that had access to all security feeds from the city, although they couldn't identify them they could at least find them if they went out in public again.

Which was why Appo found himself this deep into Coruscant's under levels, a camera had identified a suspect coming out of a club, so the general had dispatched him and another squad to detain him, while the rest of the company stood by to provide backup. The general was leading another squad on the other side of the block they were on while the commander was positioned to cover several likely escape routes.

Suddenly his HUD pinged and highlighted a man walking towards him.

"I have the target" he announced.

"Great, hold back and see if he'll lead us to where the rest of them are hiding" general Skywalker ordered.

"Yes, sir" Appo responded.

They trailed him through the tightly packed shops and clubs, until finally he stopped and entered a large warehouse.

"Sir, the suspect has entered..." Appo was cut off as shots were fired from the warehouse, one of his squad went down while the rest of them took cover.

"General, we're taking fire from a warehouse in sector 9, we need reinforcements"

More shots raked their positions and another squad member went down.

"Hold on Appo, we're almost there" General Skywalker responded.

The firefight continued, with both sides blasting away at each other. Appo swore as two more men went down and let loose a barrage at the position responsible, grunting in satisfaction when it stopped firing.

Movement behind him caught his attention, but, before he could turn, a blaster bolt connected with his helmet and he collapsed as general Skywalker rounded the corner.

With a roar, Anakin quickly dispatched Appo's killer.

"Surround it, I don't want anyone escaping" he ordered.

Once everyone was in position Anakin approached the doors.

"I'm going to give you one chance to surrender" he said "I advise you to take"

The only response was several blaster bolts.

Deflecting them, Anakin ordered the attack and began cutting through the doors, when he finished he blasted the doors open with the force and leapt inside.

None of the terrorists surrendered, several detonated explosive packs to avoid being taken prisoner, killing more of his men.

Anakin wandered through the warehouse, the bodies of the terrorists were lined up in the middle of the chamber.

All were human, from various places in the galaxy, the forensic team couldn't provide much more than that.

Apart from one other thing, they all had the same tattoo.

A red eye.

* * *

When they returned to the temple Rex informed them he had traced the message to a world on the edge of the outer rim.

ME-3791

While going over everything known about the world, Bardan Jusik entered the room.

Nodding to them, he informed them that they had traced the explosives to a weapons dealer in the lower levels, he'd also provided the maintenance droids the were used in the GAR HQ attack.

Anakin thanked him before telling him they'd traced the message.

"We've traced it to this world here" Anakin said highlighting a world on the holo map.

"With the council's permission, I'd like to dispatch your team to investigate" Anakin continued. "I'm just about to brief them now if you can hang around"

"Of course" Jusik said.

The council connected just then and Anakin brought them up to date.

"Good work" Obi-wan said when Anakin finished. "On our end, we've confirmed the attacks on the Separatists, Count Dooku, General Grevious and a number of their senators were killed."

"Senator Mon Mothma has been named temporary Chancellor until an election can be held." Luminara continued. "And at our request, has sent an offer of a cease fire to the separatist. She hopes to receive a response tomorrow."

"Was there anything else we needed to cover?" Plo asked.

"Yes" Anakin said "with your permission, I would like to dispatch a team to ME-3791 to check for any sigh of the enemy."

The council conferred for a few minutes.

"You have our permission" Plo finally said.

"Thank you masters." Anakin bowed.

"May the force be with you" they responded before signing off.

Anakin turned to Jusik.

"Get your team, we'll hold a briefing at 19:30 tonight, with departure some time tomorrow."

"We'll be there" Jusik responded heading out the door.

"...Insertion will be done via a stealth shuttle, find out what ever you can and report back to us." Anakin finished. "Any questions"

"What sort of equipment will we be taking?" an ARC trooper, Ordo? he thought, asked.

"Whatever you want or need, give me a list and I'll make sure it's in the hanger tomorrow" Anakin responded.

There were no more questions so the unusual team departed, after handing him a datapad of requests.

* * *

The next morning Anakin had an early meeting with the council.

"The Chancellor has received a response from the Separatists" Obi-Wan began.

"And?" Anakin asked.

"Senator Mina Bonteri, acting leader of the CIS senate, has agreed to a 15 day cease fire, while negotiations for a longer lasting treaty are arranged."

"Pad..er, Senator Amidala speaks highly of of Senator Bonteri." Anakin said "hopefully this will mean an end to the war"

"I hope so too" Obi-Wan replied " all our forces are going to be moved back away from Separatist territory and they will be doing the same, so if you need any assistance, we'll have troops to spare."

"I wanted to discuss that actually" Anakin said."I'd like to build up a force to have on standby in case we need to invade ME-3791."

"Hmm, I'll have the 212th and 327th on alert and," he turned to Luminara and Stass "Perhaps you can also have the 41st and 91st ready as well?"

Stass nodded.

"Will do" Luminara said.

"My forces are also free now" Ki-adi added.

"As are mine" Plo said.

"Good" Anakin said "I'll let you know what we find"

With that they ended the conference.

Later that morning Anakin, Ahsoka and Rex met with the assembled strike team in the hanger.

On the team were Knights Jusik and Tur-Mukan, the two mandalorians who had introduced themselves as Kal Skirata and Walon Vau, two ARCs, Ordo and Mereel and Delta and Omega squads consisting of Niner, Darman, Fi, Atin, Boss, Scorch, Fixer and Sev.

"You're mission is to observe only" Anakin said "don't engage unless you have no other options"

They nodded.

"May the force be with" Anakin finished.

With that they boarded the shuttle and took off.

They watched until it was out of sight, then Anakin turned to Rex and Ahsoka.

"Come on, we've still got an investigation to run"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading : )


	5. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Three weeks later...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everything apart from the first segment is Three weeks later.
> 
> A star wars week is 5 days

One entered the masters chamber.

"My Lord, a republic shuttle has entered our airspace and landed 100 klicks north of our main base."

"Good, everything is going as planned"

"Shall I send a team to monitor them" One asked.

"That won't be necessary" the Dark Lord smiled "I'll keep an _eye _on them"

One bowed "As you wish, my Lord"

He turned to leave.

"One last thing" One paused and turned back "let's give them something to report back" the Dark Lord continued.

One smiled "Yes, my Lord"

* * *

**Coruscant **

"Another dead end" Anakin growled in frustration.

Since the scout team had been deployed, Anakin and his team had been focused on tracking down the bombers. But despite their early successes, the investigation had hit a dead end. Several of them in fact. They were no closer to finding those responsible than they had been 3 weeks ago.

"They must be out there somewhere" Ahsoka said equally frustrated "they can't have disappeared into thin air"

"Yeah, but they're not here" he said as they left the warehouse they'd been searching.

"Come on, let's head back to the temple. I need something to eat" Anakin said as he jumped into their speeder.

"Yeah, I'd kill for decent bit of meat, I'm starving" Ahsoka responded.

On the approach to the temple his commlink chimed.

"Skywalker"

"Anakin, the Chancellor has just given us an update on the peace talks with the CIS, we're holding a full council meeting at 1pm if you could attend." Obi-wan informed him.

A week earlier the Chancellor, along with Senators Amidala and Chuchi had left to meet with the CIS representatives on Rodia, Shaak, Eeth and Kit had also accompanied them to represent the Jedi.

Anakin checked his chrono, 12:35pm.

"We'll be there master"

"Ok, Kenobi out."

Anakin sighed "looks like we're going to have to skip lunch"

Ahsoka groaned.

"...So the peace talks are proceeding well?" Obi-wan asked.

"Yes" Shaak answered "Mina Bonteri seems very committed to peace"

"And we should have a basic treaty signed in the next few days if all goes well" Kit added.

"Well, that's good news" Obi-wan said.

"It is" Shaak said "and how is the investigation going, Skywalker?"

"Not great" he responded "we haven't made any progress since we took out the team in the warehouse. I'd like to transfer control of the investigation to someone else and be more active in the pursuit of this dark lord"

"We'll wait for Jusik to report in before we decide anything..." Obi-wan began.

He was interrupted by a loud growl from Ahsoka's stomach. Everyone looked at her.

"What!" she said defensively, her face flushing "I'm hungry"

Obi-wan shook his head "Anakin, you do need to feed your padawan"

"Hey, it's not my fault, I was just about to when we got summoned to this meeting"

Obi-wan just rolled his eyes.

Anakin was about to respond to that when Jusik's hologram appeared.

"I apologies for the delay, there's a lot of activity here and we didn't want to risk them tracing us before we could collect solid intel." He said.

"Understandable" Obi-wan said.

"I'm not sure how long I've got so I'll give you an overview and send the main report."

Everyone nodded.

Bringing up a holo map he began.

"We landed about 100 klicks north of this mountain range here" he said highlighting both positions. "Orbital scans indicated there was a major subterranean facility underneath it, with what look like tunnels connecting it to satellite facilities spread further out" tunnels and additional bases lit up.

"After we made land fall we dispatched numerous probes to cover all areas with activity and divided into teams to further investigate targets of interest, this is some of what we found"

He activated a holo projector and began displaying the recordings they'd taken.

The first few were holos of the mountain and structures built up its sides, several others covered the satellite facilities, including what looked like large doors built into hill sides.

The next ones caught their attention. They showed legions of crudely armed and armoured soldiers, convoys of tanks and other vehicles and hundreds of transport ships.

"It looks like they're preparing for an invasion" Jusik finished.

"Do you know what species the soldiers are?" Obi-wan asked.

"No, we've never encountered any species like this before" Jusik responded.

He brought up a close up of one of the soldiers.

"Their blasters and armour are pretty basic and don't match anything in our records" he continued "the soldiers themselves resemble humans but are more primitive and.."

He was cut off when someone off holo yelled "hard contact", turning he drew his lightsaber and reflected a hail of blaster bolts.

"They've found us, we're going to have to fallback and..."

The sound cut out and the hologram dissolved into static.

Everyone stared at where Jusik's hologram had been, then Obi-wan turned to Anakin.

"Anakin, get the 501st and your fleet to Mon Calamari, we'll rendezvous with you there and begin planning our invasion, Vos, you stay here and take charge of the investigation and make sure we're prepared for more attacks"

Vos and Anakin nodded.

"We've already got the 41st, the 91st, the 327th and my 212th in the area, I'll send the rest of the 7th along as well" he turned back to the council "If you can bring the 104th, the 21st and Doom legion we'll have a formidable force that should easily handle whatever they have waiting for us. I'll also have the 442nd meet us there, they're specialists is siege combat and will be handy to have" Obi-wan finished.

Everyone nodded and with that they ended the meeting. As the holograms faded Jocasta Nu made a quick exit, while Vos clapped Anakin on the shoulder as he passed.

"May the force be with you" he said as he left.

"And you" Anakin replied.

As they left the council room Anakin commed Rex.

"Rex, here"

"Rex, we have a new mission, get the men ready, we're shipping out tomorrow"

"Yes general, where are we going?"

"ME-3791"

"Excellent, the men are eager for some payback"

"Good, departure is at 0900 tomorrow morning"

"We'll be ready, general"

"Skywalker out"

"What are we going to do now?" Ahsoka almost groaned, as Anakin put away his commlink.

He looked at her and smiled.

"We" he said "are going to find some food"

A bright smile lit up Ahsoka's face as they continued down the hall.

* * *

**Mon Calamari **

Anakin was on the bridge of the resolute when they came out of hyperspace in the Mon Calamari system. His fleet of three Venators and two Acclamators joining the already assembled fleet of 19 Venators and 16 Acclamators.

"The Negotiator is hailing us admiral" the comms officer announced.

"Put it up" Admiral Yularen responded.

A clone officer appeared on-screen.

"Admiral, General, General Kenobi requests that you join him on the Negotiator for a briefing of the war council"

"Thank you, inform the general we'll be there shortly" Yularen replied.

"Yes, Admiral"

Turning to one of his officers, Yularen ordered him to have a shuttle prepared for them.

The officer saluted and turned back to his station.

"Well general, shall we?" he asked Anakin.

"Yes, come on snips, we don't want to keep Obi-wan waiting" Anakin replied.

Ahsoka snorted and followed them out the door.

Outside the bridge Anakin commed Rex.

"Rex, meet us in the hanger and bring Jesse, Fives and Echo, we're going to the Negotiator for a war council"

"Copy that, general, we'll be there shortly"

Arriving on the Negotiator, they stepped off the shuttle into a flurry of activity.

Clones from at least five different legions were busy with preparations for the coming campaign.

A trooper from the 212th approached them.

"General, Admiral, they're waiting for you in the bridge war room, if you'll follow me"

"Lead the way" Anakin said.

The trooper nodded and they followed him out of the hanger.

Entering the bridge war room, Anakin glanced around, the room was packed.

To one side stood Plo Koon with Commander Wolffe, Ki-Adi Mundi, Commander Bacara, Stass Allie, Commander Neyo, Aayla Secura and Commander Bly.

On the other side were Tiplar, Tiplee, Commander Doom, Luminara Unduli, Commander Gree, Barriss Offee, and a Commander in 442nd colours that Anakin didn't recognise.

In the centre of the room stood Obi-wan and Commander Cody with several admirals and captains.

Yularen walked over to them while Ahsoka made a beeline for Barriss.

Rex, Fives, Echo and Jesse followed Anakin as he went to join Obi-wan and Cody as well.

Obi-wan looked up as they approached.

"Well, now that everyone's here, we can begin" he said.

They all stopped what they were doing and joined them at the holo table.

Obi-wan brought up a hologram of ME-3791

"Before we lost contact with Jusik and his team they reported that the majority of enemy activity was focused in this region here" he said indicating an area in the south eastern quadrant of the world

"They identified three main bases here, here and here, since then we haven't been able re-establish contact with them and our follow up scout ship's haven't detected any signals from them either. I'm afraid we'll have to assume the worst"

"Going into this campaign, our forces will number over 180,000 troops with 42 cruisers, over eight thousand starfighters and almost one thousand tanks with a further three thousand light vehicles and artillery excluding the 91st's scout and recon speeders" he continued.

"However, the enemies forces appear great in number and we'll be outnumbered by at least twenty to one. We will still hold the advantage though, because, from what we can tell their weapons and armour is very basic, and we have some of the finest soldiers in the galaxy fighting with us"

There was a growl of assent from the clones.

"The attack will be composed of three phases, phase one is the orbital engagement which will be lead by Admiral Yularen with General Skywalker leading the fighters, they will clear all orbital defences and enemy starfighters from the target zone and keep the skies clear so our gunships can get down safely, phase two is the establishment of a forward operating base and the landing of all our troops and armour and getting ready for phase three" Obi-wan finished nodding at Luminara, who stepped forward and took over the briefing.

"Our landing zone is about halfway between each of the primary targets" she said, bringing up a tactical map of the area.

"Once we've established a strong point, we'll move on the objectives. The 41st, the 327th, the 501st and half the 442nd will attack the main mountain range here while the 21st, the 7th, the 104th and the rest of the 442nd will attack the other two base's here and here" she continued highlighting them. "The 91st will provide fast attack support and protect our flanks from any surprise attacks the enemy throws at us"

"From what our probe droids tell us, it doesn't look like they have much in the way of defensive emplacements on or around any of the bases, so a head on assault will be our best option"

She picked up a datapad and tapped a few things on it.

"Now, I've sent everyone a briefing package with greater details on your individual roles, I suggest we take a break to go over them and reconvene once our last probes have returned tomorrow" she finished.

No one had any objections and they quickly departed in groups of two and three.

Once the room was mostly empty Anakin saw Ahsoka grab Barriss and pull her into a hug before the two of them left to "hit the mess" as Ahsoka put it.

Anakin waved her off and turned back to the holo table where Obi-wan and Luminara were arguing over some point in the plan.

Wanting nothing to do with it, he quickly turned around again and left the bridge, planning to find a quiet place he could comm Padmé from.

"So what have you been up to?" Ahsoka asked as her and Barriss sat down in the mess.

"Oh, you know, the usual, missions, training and stuff" she responded "what about you?"

"Well" Ahsoka said, taking a deep breath before launching into a detailed account of the last few months. Barriss nodded along, occasionally commenting when Ahsoka paused to take a breath or stuff more food into her mouth, even giggling at a particularly funny description of one of Anakin's misadventures.

After she finished, Barriss relaxed more and they began discussing their plans, goals and dreams well into the night. 

"Ani?" was the sleepy mumble that came through when the holocall connected.

"Yeah, sorry if I woke you"

"S'alright, I was just dozing, where are you?" she asked.

"Did the Chancellor brief you?" he asked.

"Yes, she said you're going after this Dark Lord"

"Yeah, I'm at the staging area around Mon Calamari, I just wanted to talk to you before we go, how're the peace talks going?"

"Great" she said brightening "I think we'll be able to create a lasting peace after this"

"That's great" he replied.

"And how are you?" she asked.

"Oh, fine I guess"

She gave him a stern look.

"Fine, I can't really explain it, but this is going to be the biggest campaign since Geonosis and, I don't know, I just have a bad feeling about it."

"Have you talked to anyone else about it?"

"No, it's silly. They'll probably think I'm losing my nerve"

"No they won't, they trust you and your judgement"

"I'll think about it"

She didn't look convinced but let it go.

"Anyway, I need to be going, I'll call you after the campaign. I love you." he finished

"I love you too." she replied.

He disconnected the call with a sigh and carefully climbed out of the storage closet he'd been hiding in and made his way to his quarters.

Early the next morning they gathered for the final briefing.

The probes reported that nothing major had changed so they were going in.

"You know what to do, get to your men, we jump in 6 hours" Obi-wan finished.

"Jumping in T-minus 2 minutes"

Anakin sat in his cockpit making last minute preparations for the coming battle. He was going to be leading almost 700 squadrons for this engagement. Despite his earlier worries he was.. excited.

"Jumping in T-minus 1 minute"

His comm chimed.

"Good luck Master, may the force be with you" Ahsoka said. She was with the 501st, going down with them once he'd cleared a path.

"And with you" he replied "Stay safe down there"

She snorted "I always do" with that she ended the call.

"Jumping in 10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... 0... jumping"

Anakin felt a slight jolt as the Resolute entered hyperspace.

Here we go he thought to himself.


	6. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Invasion begins....

** ME-3791 **

The instant they exited hyperspace the hanger doors were opened.

"All fighters launch!" Yularen ordered.

"On our way admiral" Anakin responded, as he lifted off and took his position at the head of the formation of starfighters.

"Squadron leaders report in" Anakin ordered.

"Shadow Squadron standing by"

"Blue Squadron ready to go"

"Iron Squadron standing by"

"Gold Squadron standing by"

"Razor Squadron standing by"

"Red Squadron standing by"

Squadron leaders continued to call in as they raced closer to ME-3791, waiting for their enemies response.

Nothing.

There was no enemy activity on long range scanners, no comms traffic, nothing.

"I've got a bad feeling about this" Obi-wan said to Yularen as they watched the starfighters from the bridge of the Resolute.

As Anakin entered the atmosphere he expected to encounter at least some resistance, however there was nothing.

Frowning he commed Obi-wan.

"Obi-wan, you can begin landing, the area is secure, no enemy contact yet" he informed him as he circled the landing zone.

"Thank you Anakin, keep your eyes open, I have a bad feeling about this"

"So do I" Anakin replied before hanging up.

Soon after, thousands of gunships were launched, carrying thousands of troops and tanks to the landing zone before returning to the troopships for more, and despite Obi-Wan's bad feeling their landing was uncontested and they quickly established a forward operating base and triage centre for their inevitable wounded.

After making sure there was going to be no surprise attacks on the newly landed troops, Anakin landed his starfighter and jumped out to join the last minute war council being held.

"....What concerns me is the lack of an enemy response to our arrival" Obi-wan was saying as Anakin approached.

"Yes indeed" Plo replied "it suggests that they are trying to lull us into a false sense of security and lead us into an ambush"

"Well, they're in for a surprise then" Anakin smirked.

"Yeah, they won't know what hit them" Ahsoka added.

"Still, we need to be prepared for possible surprise attacks" Obi-wan warned.

Everyone nodded.

"And Stass, have your men keep an eye out for any sign of the scout team, some of them may still be out there"

She nodded "If they're still alive we'll find them"

"Alright then, let's move out" Luminara said "may the force be with us"

With that they broke up and headed to their units.

"Stay safe" Ahsoka said to Barriss as she gave her a parting hug.

Barriss snorted "me?, I'm more worried about you" she replied.

Ahsoka laughed "I don't know what you're talking about" she said airily "see you after the battle"

Barriss nodded "may the force be with you"

* * *

"My lord, the enemy approaches" One announced as he entered the throne room "shall I give the order to attack?"

"No" the Dark Lord responded "wait for them to come within range of the mountain"

"Yes, master"

"When we do attack, I want you, Two and Three to focus on their leadership, kill as many of them as you can, Seven, Eight and Nine can handle troop deployment"

One smiled "of course master"

He bowed before leaving the room and the Dark Lord turned back to holomap of enemy movements he'd been studying with a smile, it was almost time.

* * *

As they marched towards the mountain Anakin could feel the tension building around his men with every step they took, tensed to respond to any sign of an enemy attack.

The 501st was in the centre of their advancing column with the 41st to their left and the 327th on the right, while the 442nd brought up the rear. Their job was to locate the weak spots in the enemies fortifications and direct the tanks and artillery to them while the rest of them focused on the enemies troops.

He glanced at Ahsoka, walking calmly at his side despite the underlying worry he could sense and smiled, she'd come a long way since Christophsis.

Luminara called a halt to their march as they came over a hill and the valley before the mountain came into view. Looking down into it he noticed something disturbing.

"That wasn't there before" Anakin said, pointing at the front of the mountain as Luminara came over to him.

The mountain, which in their reports had appeared normal, now had a massive black wall embedded in it's centre, almost 10kms across and almost 100 meters high. And on it's left side stood a tall, black tower, with a glowing orange orb at the top.

"No" Luminara replied "begin deploying your troops, I don't want us caught unprepared"

Anakin nodded and began issuing the orders.

The plan was simple enough, their artillery and tanks would hold back and provide fire support while the infantry and light vehicles advanced under the cover of their starfighter squadrons.

As they moved into attack position Anakin noticed the orb on the tower burn brighter.

He was just getting the last of his men into position when he heard it.

_Doom Doom_

He looked up, the sound seemed to have come from the mountain.

_Doom Doom_

Captain Rex approached him.

_Doom Doom_

"General, what is that?" he asked.

_Doom Doom_

"It sounds like...drums" Anakin replied.

_Doom Doom_

A resounding crack suddenly echoed across the valley as Anakin and Rex watched the black wall that was not a wall, open.

"Oh, Kriff" he heard Rex mutter as, from out of the black gates, marched thousands upon thousands of enemy soldiers, along side hundreds of tanks.

"Begin the attack!" Luminara shouted through the comm as all hell broke loose.


	7. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The war begins.

**ME-3791**

"Incoming!"

Rex dove for cover as a V-19 slammed into the ground behind him, exploding into a massive fire ball.

Getting to his feet again, he surveyed the mess around him.

The campaign was a disaster, their forces were shattered, no match for the enemies overwhelming numbers.

They had wiped out the first, second and third waves, when the forth came the bodies were piled waist deep across the valley, cratered by destroyed tanks and fallen starfighters from the battle raging in the sky above.

After the seventh wave they were running low on ammo.

Someone had ordered a withdrawal, covered by their steadily dwindling air support, they had slowly retreated back to their landing zone.

Rex's company had been along side the 327th as they slowly gave ground under the iron will of General Secura and Commander Bly.

They were holding their own until the warrior in black arrived.

Something about them seemed to drive the enemy soldiers into a frenzy, making them charge head long into their positions without thought to their own lives.

Blaster fire glanced off him without effect so General Secura had leapt to engage him and they had drawn a strange sword in response and descended into a furious melee.

Rex lost sight of the fight as more enemies tried to overrun their position.

They had just finished them off when he heard an anguished howl from Bly.

Looking over he saw General Secura go down, a blade protruding from her chest.

With a vicious roar the 327th charged forward to recover their general, dozens fell, none cared as they cut their way through to her and Bly gently picked her up and rushed her back through the lines as the 327th formed a wall of bodies to cover their retreat.

Watching her fall reminded Rex that he hadn't seen General Skywalker for several hours now, and the last time he'd seen Commander Tano she was leaping onto an enemy gunship that was strafing their position, he hoped they were still alive.

With General Secura gone, the moral of the remaining troops collapsed.

"Fall back to the hill!" Rex yelled, trying to stop the retreat from becoming a rout.

As the last enemy fell, Anakin paused to take stock of the situation, it wasn't good.

His half of the 501st had been hammered, Jesse was dead, Echo was missing and most of the survivors were wounded.

"Another wave's coming!" Fives yelled.

Anakin refocused on the battle and leapt to engage the next wave, making short work of them.

Behind them, another wave followed, with tanks and being lead by a warrior in black.

With a growl, Anakin charged at the new enemy, who drew a sword and blocked his lightsaber.

Surprised, Anakin tried to get a read on him in the force, nothing.

It was like he wasn't there.

His confusion must have showed because the warrior laughed.

"Not so impressive without your powers are you" he taunted.

He must be a force null Anakin thought.

"I don't need the force to beat you" Anakin spat back, breaking the blade lock and swinging at him again.

Without the force, Anakin was evenly matched by the warrior, both striking and blocking with ease, neither able to find an opening.

Continuing their dual as the battle raged around them, Anakin managed to force his foe back against a tank.

Moving to strike, Anakin was distracted when a rocket slammed into the tank.

It must have hit it's ammunition, because it exploded in a huge ball of fire, sending Anakin flying.

He crashed to the ground 20 metres away.

Fives came running up to him.

"General, are you alright?" he asked, offering his hand.

Anakin took his hand and pulled himself up.

"Yeah, a little singed, but ok I think"

He looked around, but there was no sign of the warrior.

"Come on, we need to keep moving, we don't want to be left behind" he said to Fives.

As they retreated Anakin hoped Rex and Ahsoka were faring better.

The landing zone was in sight, only another klick to go.

Rex was walking backwards, blasting at any enemies that showed themselves over the hill.

Suddenly he tripped over a body, falling backwards onto it.

Expecting to find another fallen brother, he was shocked to see it was Ahsoka, quickly picking himself up, he rolled her over to see if she was still alive and was horrified to see her left arm was almost completely gone, only a little stub left at the shoulder, she twitched weakly.

"Kix, get over here" he yelled.

Kix came running over, shock evident in his body language when he saw who it was.

"Where's her arm" he said aghast.

"I don't know, but we need to get her out of here now" Rex replied.

Scooping her up, they rushed her to the extraction point and a waiting gunship.

"We have a priority medevac" Rex yelled at the crew.

They took one look at Ahsoka, loaded her on with everyone else they could and quickly took off.

As soon as the gunship had left, Rex and Kix turned back to the battle.

The enemy seemed to have slowed their advance, giving them a brief respite and Rex took a moment to assess his remaining troops.

He'd lost over half his battalion and General Skywalker was still... No wait there he is.

Heading their way, looking like he'd been set on fire, with his clothes singed and half his hair missing was the General.

He ran up to them, desperation in his eyes.

"Rex, have you seen Ahsoka?" he asked, his eyes pleading.

Rex nodded "yes sir, we just medevaced her"

He saw relief wash over the general before what he'd said was fully processed.

"How bad?" he asked.

"Bad" Rex answered.

"But she'll live" Kix put in.

Anakin sighed, running a hand through what was left of his hair.

"She's safe for now, let's focus on getting the rest of our men off this rock" Anakin finally said.

Rex nodded.

Several hours later the last of their forces were gathered in the landing zone.

Anakin saw too many missing faces, none of the 104th had made it back and the 212th was down to only 17 troopers. So many dead for no gain.

He was interrupted from his thoughts by Luminara who had rushed over to him, without her headdress and looking worse for wear.

"Anakin" she said sounding almost hysterical "Have you seen Barriss anywhere"

"No, I'm sorry, I haven't" he replied "Maybe she's been evacuated already?"

"No I checked, she hasn't left the planet" she said, looking around desperately as if hoping Barriss would suddenly appear.

Obi-wan approached them.

"The last of our forces are loaded, It's time to go" he said quietly.

"No" Luminara screamed "Barriss is still out there, I can feel her"

Obi-wan took hold of her arm.

"I know" he whispered "But there's nothing we can do, we're about to be overrun"

"No" she shouted, trying to pull herself free "I won't abandon her, not again. Urgh, let go of me, I'll fight through the whole army if I have to"

"No" Obi-wan said quietly "Barriss wouldn't want you to kill yourself trying to save her"

Luminara froze, tears leaving streaks through the grime on her face, then she seemed to collapse in on her self slightly with a sob and Obi-wan pulled her into a hug.

"Come on, we need to leave" he said to Anakin.

They'd just made it into a gunship when the enemy broke through their auto turret defences and streamed into the landing zone.

Lifting off just in time they headed back to what was left of their fleet, navigating through the wreckage of the space battle.

Leaving behind over half their army.

And on his throne, the Dark Lord smiled.


	8. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aftermath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's a bit rushed because I deviated completely from my outline and had to totally rewrite the chapter at the last minute.

** Mon Calamari  **

After the last of the gunships had landed Admiral Yularen had ordered a full retreat, their surviving cruisers limping to the jump point, pursued by enemy bombers.

As soon as the gunships doors opened, Anakin raced to the medbay, desperate to confirm Ahsoka was alive.

Now he sat by her bed, covered in bacta patches. With the burns he had he should've been put in a bacta tank, but with so many others more seriously injured, he had refused when the medics suggested it.

Looking at Ahsoka, lying there, pale and unconscious, he felt a sense of failure. He should have been there for her, protected her, made her stay behind, anything to stop this from happening.

After an hour, he felt the ship leave hyperspace and his comm chimed, looking at it he saw it was Obi-wan.

"Yeah?" he said when he answered it.

"Anakin, the casualty reports have come in from the other cruisers, we're meeting in the war room to go over them." Obi-wan said.

Anakin sighed.

"Alright, I'll be there shortly"

When he approached the war room, he saw Rex was waiting for him with a datapad.

"General" he nodded, when Anakin stopped besides him.

"The 501st's casualty report" he said, handing Anakin the datapad.

Anakin grimaced.

"How bad is it" he asked.

Rex paused before answering.

"65% of the battalion is either dead or missing, including Jesse, Echo and Hardcase. 80% of the survivors are wounded, 35% of those critically." Rex said neutrally, though Anakin could feel his pain.

Anakin placed a hand on Rex's shoulder.

"Let's get this briefing out of the way, then we can morn those we've lost"

"Yes, sir" Rex replied, before they turned and entered the war room.

"Our space losses are significant" Yularen began "we lost six cruisers, eight transports and over half our starfighters"

Rex glanced around the room, taking note of everyone missing from when they first held a full briefing.

Missing from his own group were Jesse, Echo, Fives and Ahsoka. The latter two were only in the medbay, but still, they weren't present.

From the 41st were Commanders Offee and Gree, Gree was in a tank, having suffered serious injuries protecting General Unduli who was sitting glassy eyed to one side.

The Commander of the 442nd was gone as well, replaced by a captain.

General Secura and Commander Bly were also absent, a captain taking their place. Commander Bly was uninjured but had "declined" the offer to join the briefing and the look he'd given the medics when they'd suggested he take a break from his vigil at General Secura's bacta tank had put even the Jedi off from approaching him.

Both General Koon and Commander Wolffe were listed as dead.

So was General Tiplar.

And Neyo from the 91st.

Rex refocused as General Kenobi began speaking.

"Our losses on the ground were catastrophic, all battalions suffered at least 60% casualties and the 104th has been completely destroyed. In total we lost almost 130,000 troops, all our armour, light attack vehicles and cannons." He said.

After a few more minutes and several questions the General called an end to the meeting and told them all to take a break for the next couple of days to recover from what had happened.

Most left quickly, General Skywalker however headed over to General Kenobi and spoke quietly to him, while Rex waited.

After a minute Kenobi patted Skywalker on the shoulder and walked over to General Unduli, she stood and together they left the the room.

Skywalker came back over to him.

"Come on, let's go check on the others" he said.

"Yes General" Rex responded.

"Anakin please, Rex. I don't want to be a General for the next few days" he replied wearily.

"Of course, sir" Rex said as they left the room too.

Anakin's head nodded and he almost fell of his chair.

Jerking himself up again, he sighed and looked at Ahsoka. She was still unconscious, the medics said she was alright but he still didn't like it.

He glanced at the stump of her arm then looked at his own prosthetic. He's going to help her build one, he decides.

He almost nodded off again when Rex came over from Fives' bed.

"Sir, you need to get some rest" he said.

"No, I'm fine Rex, I don't want to leave her"

"I'll stay with her, you need to rest. You're not helping her by making yourself exhausted" Rex retorted.

When Anakin looked like he was about to argue he continued.

"Besides, there's someone you probably need to call"

Anakin looked sharply at Rex, was he imagining it or was there a slight gleam in his eye.

"Maybe you're right" he finally said "But comm me as soon as she wakes"

"Yes Sir" Rex said, taking the seat Anakin had vacated.

With a final nod, Anakin headed to his quarters.

Arriving in his room, he sank onto his bed and pulled out his comm and called Padmé.

After a minute her hologram appeared.

"Hey, Padmé" he began.

"Anakin" she smiled "what..." she froze as she took in his appearance.

"My god" she whispered "Anakin what happened to you?"

"This is nothing" he replied "Ahsoka lost an arm so I can't complain"

"She what" Padmé gasped.

"They were waiting for us" Anakin continued, as if he didn't hear her "we didn't stand a chance, we lost so many men"

He stopped and ran a hand over his face.

"I'm sorry, Anakin" Padmé said quietly.

"Me too" Anakin said as he slumped sideways onto his bed and fell asleep.

"Goodnight, Ani" she whispered before ending the call.

Early the next morning, Rex commed him to say Ahsoka was stirring.

Anakin rushed down to see her. She still looked terrible, but at least she was conscious now he thought.

"How are you feeling" he asked.

"Awful" she groaned "What happened?"

"We lost a lot of men and we had to abandon the campaign" Anakin answered.

"What about our boys?" Ahsoka asked.

Rex sighed.

"The 501st is down to under 800 men and many of them are wounded, like Fives" he said pointing to a bed several places down.

Ahsoka tried to use her arms to lift herself up to look and frowned when she could only raise herself on one side.

Looking to her left side, she sucked in a shocked breath when she saw her arm was gone.

Panicked eyes found Anakin's as she began gasping for air.

"Ahsoka, focus on my voice, it's going to be alright, ok, you're going to be fine" Anakin said, taking hold of her shoulders and squeezing gently.

After a minute she got her breathing under control.

"Sorry, Master" she whispered.

"It's alright" he replied quietly "I know exactly how you feel"

He turned to Rex.

"Rex, you look dead on your feet, you should go get some sleep"

Rex yawned.

"Yes, I think I will" he turned to leave.

"Wait" Ahsoka said, holding out her hand.

Rex turned back and, after a moments hesitation took it.

"Thank you for sitting with me" she said "It was a great comfort knowing you were there"

Rex smiled.

"Any time, sir"

And with that he left.

Later that morning Anakin was on the bridge with Obi-wan and Yularen.

"Repairs will be finished late tonight" Yularen informed them "And we'll jump as soon as possible after that"

"Very good Admiral, we'll leave you to it" Obi-wan said as he and Anakin turned to leave.

They stepped out of the bridge into the hallway.

"How's Luminara?" Anakin asked.

"Doing better" Obi-wan replied. "How's Ahsoka?"

"She awake now, but the loss of her arm has hit her hard" he replied.

"I can imagine" Obi-wan said.

"She's tough though, she'll pull through" Anakin said.

Late that evening Anakin was sitting on his bed again, going over the battle in his head, when there was a knock on his door.

"Come in" he said.

The door opened and in came Ahsoka looking close to tears.

"Ahsoka, what are you doing here, you should be in medical" he said.

"I couldn't sleep" she said "my arm is really hurting and nothing helps"

"Ah" he said "I know what you mean"

He patted the space besides him.

"Have a seat"

She sat down next to him and he pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her, careful not to touch her left arm.

"My arm felt the same when I first lost it" he said.

"Did it ever stop?" she asked.

"It did to a large extent when I got my prosthetic, but it still occasionally feels strange"

She seemed to relax slightly as he said that.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there for you" he said quietly "I promise, when we get back to the temple, I'll help you build the best arm possible"

"I'd like that" she whispered, closing her eyes.

After a while she drifted off to sleep.

Shortly after, Anakin felt the ship jump to hyperspace.

* * *

** ME-3791 **

Barriss woke to a pounding headache, confused as to where she was.

Groaning, she tried to sit up, a burning pain shot down her side and she collapsed again.

The pain jolted her memory and she remembered.

Everything came back to her, the battle, the fighting retreat, an explosion, blackness.

Reaching out with the force, she tried to access her situation and any danger she might be in.

She reached further and further but she couldn't sense any hostile life forms.

The only three she could sense felt like clones, but they were faint, like they were injured or unconscious.

Relaxing slightly, she spent some time planning her next moves.

After resting for a while she used the force to sooth her headache and heal her wounds, before slowly getting to her feet and looking around.

The area was carpeted with the bodies of clones and enemy soldiers.

Still feeling no hostile intent, she carefully made her way over to the nearest point of life.

The trooper was lying face up in a pile of other bodies, still gripping his blaster, his armour colours marking him as from the 501st.

His armour was pockmarked with blaster fire.

Not wanting to startle him, she approached slowly, before calling out to him.

"Trooper, are you alright?"

He didn't move, but she could sense he was conscious and looking at her, assessing her.

She smiled at him.

After a minute he responded.

"Yes Commander, I took a few rounds, but it's nothing serious"

"That's good" she said moving closer and sitting beside him.

"What happened sir?" he asked once she had settled.

"I think we were left behind" she said looking at the sky "I can't feel the cruisers anymore"

"Just us?" he continued.

"No, I can sense two more troopers over that way" she said, pointing.

"Let's go check on them then" he replied, getting to his feet.

"Yeah, then we need to find shelter, the enemy might come back and we don't want to get caught out here" she said.

"Good idea"

"What's your name?" she asked as they made their over to the others.

"Echo, Sir" he said.

"I'm Barriss" she replied.

He held out his hand.

"Nice to meet you Barriss" he said.

She smiled at him and took his hand.

"Likewise, Echo" she said as she shook it.


	9. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The storm approaches.

**Coruscant**

Almost a week later, their fleet limped into Coruscant.

All of the injured clones were transferred to medical facilities around the world, while the uninjured were sent back to the barracks and given two weeks of leave.

While the Jedi and their commanders take a shuttle to the temple.

Waiting on the landing platform for them were several medical teams and Padmé.

When the shuttle lands she barely stops herself from rushing up the ramp with the medics.

Out first are several clones in various colours, followed by Obi-wan and Luminara.

Several more Jedi she vaguely recalls but can't name come out after them.

And following behind them are Anakin and Ahsoka, both looking terrible.

Padmé loses the last of her restraint and rushes forwards, throwing herself into Anakin's arms.

Anakin freezes for a moment before hugging her back.

"I'm glad you're alright" she whispered.

Anakin says nothing, just enjoying the comfort of the hug.

Padmé catches sight of Ahsoka staring at them and grabs her, pulling her into the hug as well.

They stand there for a while, oblivious to everyone around them.

Until Obi-wan approached them.

"The Chancellor would like us to brief her on what has happened" he said "She's sent a shuttle to pick us up, it should be here shortly"

Reluctantly, they broke apart.

"Alright, Ahsoka, you head back to the temple, the healers are waiting for you." Anakin said "I'll come and check on you later"

She nods and gets on the transport the other Jedi and clones have boarded, which then takes off, leaving just Padmé, Anakin, Obi-wan and Luminara behind.

Soon after a shuttle lands and takes them to the Senate.

"So what do you propose we do?" Chancellor Mothma asked once Anakin and Obi-wan had finished briefing her on what had happened.

Obi-wan looked at Anakin and sighed.

"We advise recalling all our armies and redeploying them along this line here" he began, pointing along an area on a holomap.

"We also recommend that each world build up a local militia to help with their defence when they invade" Anakin added.

"We are already losing contact with worlds around ME-3791, if we don't make serious preparations now we will lose a lot more than what we already have" Obi-wan continued.

Mothma nodded.

"Bring me your recommendations tomorrow" she said "and I'll attach them to the emergency bill I'll be presenting"

Everyone nodded and began to leave. 

"This is going to be a hard fight" Luminara said quietly to Anakin and Obi-wan as they walked from the room.

"Yes, it will be" Anakin said heavily.

"Master Kenobi, Master Unduli, do you have a moment?" Padmé asked, coming over to them.

"Of course senator" Obi-wan replied.

"I'm sure you've got plenty of things to do today, but I was wondering if you would join us tonight at my apartment, there are some things we'd like to discuss with you" she said with a glance at Anakin.

Obi-wan nodded.

"We have a number of things we need to organise, but we should be able to, how does 9pm sound?"

"That would be great" Padmé smiled "see you then"

After she'd left, the Jedi made their way to the hanger and took a shuttle back to the temple.

When they arrived, they split up, with Luminara and Obi-wan heading to the council chamber and Anakin going to the medical ward to find Ahsoka.

He found her having a connection for a bionic arm attached.

"How are you feeling?" he asked when she noticed him.

"Better" she replied.

"Good, have you thought about what kind of arm you want?"

"Yeah.... you said you'd help me build one?" she asked hopefully.

He nodded.

"Well, I'd like one that's light weight and flexible so I don't have to change my fighting style to much, kinda like your's" she said.

"I'm sure we can come up with something" he replied with a smile.

Late that evening, Anakin sat in Padmé's apartment with her cuddled up besides him.

They'd just spent the last hour explaining their relationship to Obi-wan and Luminara, who were sitting on the other sofa and were practically cuddling as well.

"Well, now" Obi-wan said when they'd finished. He glanced at Luminara, who nodded.

"Since you've trusted us with your secret, it's only fair we trust you with ours" he began.

"Obi-wan and I have been in a relationship for the last 6 years" Luminara said.

Anakin looked shocked, Padmé, surprised.

"How did you keep it from me" Anakin spluttered.

"Unlike you two, we can be discrete" he said with a smirk.

Padmé and Anakin looked outraged.

"Moving on" Obi-wan said "Anakin, there's something we'd like to discuss with you"

Anakin nodded.

"We've talked with the council and they have agreed, we'd like to offer you a position on the council" he said.

Anakin looked shocked.

"But I'm not a master" he said.

"That doesn't matter" Luminara said "you're an exceptional leader, you've always gone above and beyond what is expected of you and you're one of the greatest fighters we've ever had in the order."

Anakin glanced at Padmé, who nodded furiously.

"Ok" he said "Thank you, masters, I will do my best to live up to your expectations"

"Excellent" Obi-wan said.

After another hour of talking Obi-wan and Luminara left to head back to the temple, leaving Anakin and Padmé alone for the night.

The next few days passed in a blur.

The Chancellor's bill was passed, and their armies were redeployed as more and more reports of worlds falling to unknown legions of soldiers came in.

Most of the Jedi were sent to the front lines again, Anakin however, was to remain behind for the time being, to recover and assist with Ahsoka's recovery, on top of his new duties as a councillor.

Glancing through the latest reports from the front lines he felt a growing sense of dread as he read through page after page of details on the worlds that had fallen to the enemies advance.

The storm was coming, he hoped they had the strength to weather it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will probably be the last chapter this year,  
I'll try to have another out before the end of January but I can't promise anything.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading : )


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